Sports Relief 2010 - Challenge of a lifetime!
Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules and his team mate Graham Hoskins undertake the challenge of a lifetime, motor-biking nearly 7000 miles to circumnavigate the Mediterranean Sea in just 15 days. Graham and Danny will travel through 3 continents, riding across 14 diverse, scenic and often chaotic Mediterranean countries as they cross from Europe over the Bosphorus into Asia, through the Middle East and round into North Africa. It's an endurance challenge and not for the faint hearted!
To finish the Iron Butts Challenge, Danny and Graham will have to work together to overcome whatever trials face them. From bad navigation and getting lost, to flat tyres, mad and bad local drivers, mechanical failure, visa and border issues, running out of fuel and cultural differences.
Why Do This?
The team's main aim is to raise money for Sport Relief and secondly to promote the joys of safe adventure motor-biking for everyone.
Graham has a history of undertaking charity motorbike rides - most recently motor-biking endurance challenges such as riding 4000 miles to Moscow and back in 6 days for BBC Children in Need in 2005. Danny is coming because Graham asked him to come support this great cause!
The Route
| Sat Feb 27th | Celebrity send-off from the Motorbike Show at Ally Pally, Channel Tunnel crossing and ride to Reims | 250 miles |
| Sun Feb 28th | Ride through France to Marseille | 490 miles |
| Mon Mar 1st | Ferry from Marseille arriving at 0900 Annaba, Algeria, ride to Tunis or Gabes | 130 miles |
| Tues Mar 2nd | Depart Tunis/Gabes early, ride to Leptis Magna (Roman remains) near Tripoli Up to 5 hours required to cross the Libyan border | 483 miles |
| Wed Mar 3rd | Ride to Ajdabiya | 460 miles |
| Thu Mar 4th | Ride to Marsa Matrough Up to 5 hours required to cross the Egyptian border) | 490 miles |
| Fri Mar 5th | Ride to Cairo, visit Pyramids | 400 miles |
| Sat Mar 6th | Ride to St Catherine Monastery | 370 miles plus ferry |
| Sun Mar 7th | Ride to Nuweibah - ferry to Aqaba, Jordan |
| Mon Mar 8th | Ride to Damascus, ride the Kings Highway in Jordan | 400 miles |
| Tues Mar 9th | Ride to Aleppo, Syria | 400 miles |
| Wed Mar 10th | Ride Aleppo to Ankara, Turkey | 450 miles |
| Thu Mar 11th - Sun Mar 14th | Ride Ankara to Calais Possible quick stops at Istanbul F1 circuit, | 2100 miles |
| | TOTAL (assuming no-one gets lost and no detours!) | 6423 miles |
How Much Do We Want To Raise?
The team want to set a target that is realistic enough to be achievable within our means but high enough to be interesting and challenging. Danny and Graham would like to discuss this with the Sport Relief team.
How Will We Raise Money?
There are 2 main ways in which we will raise money. The first is to ebay auction products donated by the motorcycling industry. Historically, the industry is reluctant to give money but very happy to provide products from helmets to intercoms as part of a charity venture. These will be auctioned on ebay. Secondly, will be via donation which we will develop through our media coverage. We anticipate this to be via Text or our website but would appreciate any insight from the Sport Relief team.
Filming
Whilst the team do not have the budget for a cameraman, they will be taking HD camcorders and will be fully equipped with on bikes cameras as well. They will currently film the whole challenge themselves.
What Help Would The Team Like From Sport Relief
The teams foremost aim is raise money so any support from the team which will help that happen will be invaluable. The team's ability to raise money is intrinsically linked to the level of media exposure that can be raised so any support in this regard will, be invaluable. This might include anything from the challenge being displayed on the Sport Relief website to appearing on the Friday night show and any other PR support. The team would also appreciate any support and advice on the mechanism for gathering donations - particularly via SMS and the web. The sooner these mechanisms can be set-up, the sooner the team can start PR activity for it.
The team currently has a simple website set up at www.ironbutts.co.uk
Our Supporters
The motorcycles will be provided by Honda UK - 2 Transalp 700s. This challenge is being fully funded by Graham and his supporters. This currently includes Kinetic GB Ltd, Call Credit Marketing and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Other supporters currently include Southern Ferries and Prince Visa.
We anticipate that a great many others will join that list over the next two weeks.
Our Media Supporters
Our current media supporters include Motorcyclenews who will be following our journey on mcn.com and writing a feature on the challenge. Capitalize PR are providing PR support as part of their role in the motor biking ‘Get On' motorcycle campaign which is aiming to bring new riders into the sport. The Honda PR team will also provide coverage. Again, we expect this list to grow over the next two weeks.
Who Are We?
DANNY JOHN-JULES
Actor, singer, dancer and previously a hip hop DJ. A star of the cult series Red Dwarf playing the parts of the Cat and Duane Dibbley. Danny has more recently appeared in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Blade II and The Tournament. Another little-known fact is that Danny was the dancer from the crowd in the WHAM! video for The Edge Of Heaven. He gets up partway through the instrumental section and dances alongside George Michael!
Danny is a great fan of bikes, both riding and watching racing. Endurance challenges are new to him though!
GRAHAM ‘BIG GEE' HOSKINS
Graham leads two lives. In one he owns and runs a management consultancy and in the other he likes adventure biking and doing crazy stuff for charity. Graham's early promise of a career flying fast jets in the Navy was cut short by a battle with cancer aged 21. Side-effects of his cancer treatment caused him to go through 4 total hip replacements in the last 16 years. All of which drive his resolve to take life by throat and make the most of it.
Graham is 41, married with 3 children.
Sponsors on board thus far;
Honda UK
MCE Insurance
O2
InterContinental Hotel Group
Eurotunnel
RAC
Garmin
Starcom (Tecstar electronics)
Motorcycle News
The 'Get On' Campaign
Capitalize PR
Oxford Products
REV'IT! clothing
Stanfords Map Shop
Call Credit Marketing Solutions (part of the Skipton Building Society Group)
Prince Visa
SNCF Ferries/Southern Ferries
RL Davison Insurance
Steppes Travel
Blueye Eyewear
Emerge
Alpinestars
Fighters Inc
'Car Pool' (http://www.llewtube.com)
Arai
Keys Motorcycles
BKS Leathers
Carole Nash
Check out
http://ironbutts.blogspot.com/
CAROLE NASH SAVES RED DWARF’S STAR’S “IRON BUTT”
AS HE GEARS UP FOR 7,000 MILE SPORTS RELIEF CHALLENGE
Motorbike insurance specialist Carole Nash has saved the “Iron Butt” of actor Danny John-Jules’ “Iron Butt” so he can tackle a 7,000 mile challenge in aid of Sports Relief.
Danny, who is best known for playing the Cat in the BBC sci-fi comedy hit , hit a last minute hitch when insurance for him and co-rider Graham Hoskins fell through. Management consultant Graham then sent a desperate last minute plea for help to Carole Nash boss David Newman who agreed to provide free cover for the duo and their Honda XL700V ABS Transalps bikes on the European leg of their fundraising adventure.
The expedition has been dubbed the “Iron Butts” as after Danny and Graham set off this weekend they will spend 16 days in the saddle as they circumnavigate the Mediterranean. The gruelling itinerary will see them ride through 14 countries across Europe, Asia the Middle East and Africa. But the brakes were nearly put on the whole expedition after their insurance plans fell through.
A grateful Danny joked: “When we heard that our insurance had fallen through we had quite the opposite of iron butts! But seriously Carole Nash really saved the day, or the 15 days, because without insurance this trip would have been dead in the water and with it the money Graham and I are set to raise for Sports Relief. We’re both immensely grateful.”
David Newman said Carole Nash was happy to help. “It’s not every day you get to rescue the Cat! We’re delighted to have been in a position to support such a testing biking challenge and, of course, Sports Relief which does such amazing work supporting disadvantaged people here in the UK and across the world.”
The two riders will kick-start the challenge with a celebrity send off at noon on Saturday (February 27th) from The Ace Cafe London Motorcycle and Custom Show at Alexandra Palace. From there they’ll tackle the first 250 mile leg to the Channel Tunnel where they’ll pick up a train to Reims before riding on to Marseille and beyond. They will return to the UK on Sunday March 14th.
To raise as much money as they can Danny and Graham are looking not just for people to sponsor the ride but to bid one bay for biking gear donated by the motorcycle industry. For details of how to support the Iron Butts Sports Relief challenge visit:www.ironbutts.co.uk